Songs for Drella
56m
Directed by Ed Lachman • 1990 • United Kingdom, United States
Starring Lou Reed, John Cale
Newly restored, this elegiac concert documentary captures the extraordinary 1990 reunion of estranged Velvet Underground bandmates Lou Reed and John Cale. The occasion for this landmark event was a live performance of their album “Songs for Drella,” a wry and wrenching tribute to their recently deceased former manager Andy Warhol (the nickname, Drella, a portmanteau of Dracula and Cinderella, hints at the complex feelings the two men held for the artist, who exerted a Svengali-like influence over their early careers). Filmed with evocative austerity by renowned cinematographer Ed Lachman (THE VIRGIN SUICIDES, CAROL), SONGS FOR DRELLA is both a mesmerizing musical experience and a haunting reflection on memory, loss, regret, and the search for solace.